Land Tax

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (15:04): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier rule out that his government will put a great big land tax on the family home before the next election?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (15:04): The government has released our State Tax Review Discussion Paper and we are seeking comments from the South Australian public about our own source revenue and what we want the public to give us feedback on is what kind of taxation system they want.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Obviously whenever you have a discussion about taxation you get a lot of vested interests talking about their preferred options and there have been a number of independent assessments and modelling done about what some very efficient systems of taxation would be.

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned a second and final time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Indeed, there have been accounting firms and the most recent Henry review that remarked on a whole series of options from changing the way payroll tax is collected to the way you charge land tax to the way you tax transactions. In having a detailed approach to tax reform, if the government had not modelled options that had been publicly canvassed across the country and had simply ignored some aspects of state-owned revenue and said, 'Look, that is just too hard, so we are not even going to talk about that,' we would have been ridiculed by the opposition. They would have said this is not a thorough assessment of state-based taxation.

So what we have done is included models on what it would look like if, through the consultation, the public of South Australia said we would prefer to pay no conveyance duty on property and we would prefer to replace that with a broad-based tax. That does not mean the government wants to introduce a broad-based tax. We want to have a mature debate, but unfortunately at the first hurdle the opposition has fallen over. Before they have even read the report, they are ruling things in and out—before even reading it.

Members interjecting:

Mr GARDNER: Point of order: the minister is now talking about opposition policy. He is clearly debating.

The SPEAKER: It is a bit hard to answer the question if the Treasurer cannot compare and contrast the opposition's position with the government's so I will listen carefully to what the Treasurer has to say.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The government has a whole series of priorities that we have talked about through the Governor's opening of the parliament. We want to investigate new industries for South Australia. We want to look at the nuclear fuel cycle. We want to talk about whether we are in the right time zone. We want to talk about investigating new technologies and we want to talk about our tax system.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I have to say that, when you have a government that has cut probably $4.5 billion of revenue out of the tax system and if we had kept tax rates as they were when we first came to office, we would be charging South Australians out of our economy a billion dollars more per year in taxation. I think it is prudent that every now and then we stop and consider our tax system. Is it efficient? How can we encourage business to invest? What are the transactional inhibitions that we put in place to stop business from investing? What can we do to encourage entrepreneurs and start-ups? How can we provide those services that South Australians deserve and South Australians have come to know and expect from our hospitals, from our schools, from our police, and the infrastructure we provide? It is time for a mature debate about this issue, and at the first hurdle the opposition fall over because of playing blatant populist politics.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I think the Treasurer has made his point. The deputy leader is warned for the second and final time, the members for Stuart, MacKillop and Mitchell are called to order, the members for Morialta and Hammond are warned for the first time, and the member for Schubert has got his second warning back.

Mr WILLIAMS: Excuse me, Mr Speaker. I have been quietly sitting here reading from my iPad for the whole of question time. Is that out of order?

The SPEAKER: No, you were not called to order for reading. You were called to order for interjecting.

Mr WILLIAMS: Sir, I have not interjected.

The SPEAKER: Well, you have.

Mr Bell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Mount Gambier wishes to adopt the member for MacKillop's call to order and accordingly it is withdrawn from the member for MacKillop and added to the member for Mount Gambier's column.